Bad picture? Good picture?

11th August 2007 : I was walking alone down the picturesque riverfront in the town of Malacca, located in one of the most historical state in Malaysia. A gentle breeze swept across the riverfront, blowing the Malaysia flag high. Quickly, I focused, composed and took the shot.

Beautiful imagery, or so I thought... Malaysian flag waving high to celebrate our upcoming National Day on the 31st of August but as soon as I put down my camera; a sadness washed through me.

National Day soon, yes. Losing a friend to a neighbouring country, yes as well....

... right, time to rewind to nearly a week earlier.

5th August 2007 : On a jungle trek somewhere... dirty... wet... filled with leaches, dead branches and roots; the air smelled of sweat and various other unidentifiable smells.... on occassion the air carried the smell of decay and even other unpleasentness.

This was no picturesque riverfront with nicely laid roads and patterns but...

A group of young people were trekking through the trail that day, the sounds of giggles, laughter and the occasion, "ouch~" filed the trail and like me, they took photographs too and this was one such photo :


This shot is blur... and as my friend who shared this with me pointed out, the subject's eyes were closed but can you see past the surface on this shot?

Technically, this shot may not score much when compared to the 1st photo... but do ask yourself which is the good picture and which is the bad picture? Which do you prefer?

Lesson : Sometimes one should look past the technical aspects of the picture, some pictures are worth a thousand words, some pictures mean the world to the people who took them or was in them. These are the "good pictures". Learn to look past the technical aspects, past the surface . Then and only then you will be truly able to understand photography.

p.s. for the record, I love the 2nd picture for the emotion... and I would love to hate the 1st picture because of the emotions it evokes in me.